Legend of the Wings of Freedom
by GhostRin
Summary: Just how did the Survey Corps come to be? What the meaning behind their famous wings? Why must only one person carry the title of Humanity's Strongest, as only one person carries Humanity's Hope? Perhaps an old, forgotten legend will answer the questions left ignored.


When the walls were first constructed one hundred years ago, there was a king.

This king was compassionate, well loved by his people, but also a very serious character. He was creative with his situations, and it was his idea to eradicate the walls.

Despite how effective the walls were, he felt trapped, even if his subjects felt safe and sheltered. Often he would disappear from the castle to wander, and during his strolls he took to bird watching. Even if watching the birds caused harsh bitter envy to creep inside his weary heart as he watched the birds take to the sky, and fly freely over the walls.

It was on one such stroll that the king saw a pure white dove, sitting not too far from a much smaller, but equally as striking in color, jet black ebony blackbird.

The king did not know why, but he stopped to observe.

Doves and blackbirds were very common in the walls, but the pair before him seemed to call for undivided attention. Abiding to this strange sudden feeling, the king watched for hours, refusing to move from his spot even when his guard demanded his return on the behalf of the queen.

The sun had just slipped past noon when colorful birds, although their feathers seemed dull compared to the dove and blackbird's, began to swarm around the dove.

The king was shocked as the birds bombarded the poor dove relentlessly, teasing, hurting and shrieking at it. Before the king could move to intervene, the blackbird spread its wings, its size suddenly insignificant as it dove with grace into the fluttering cloud, scattering the birds. With angered screams, the blackbird drove away the other birds, forcing them so far that the king soon lost sight of them.

The king was astonished. From all the hours he had watched the blackbird and the dove, not once had the blackbird appeared daunting, and had barely peeped unless pestered by the dove for minutes at a time.

Watching silently as the blackbird flew back, the king was further surprised as the blackbird landed next to the dove, chirping at it softly as if comforting it as the dove nursed its stinging scratches. Another hour passed, and the king, tired but oddly feeling more at ease finally began his departure back to the castle.

Since that first encounter, the king began to regularly returning to watch the two birds, soon taking note to their differences and strengths. He learned one day just how strong the two were together.

He had been sitting under a tree, watching quietly when a large fox had leapt from the bushes. While the other birds scattered with frightened cries, the blackbird and dove stood their ground.

The fox had clamped its jaws around a flailing bluebird and was occupied with its caught meal, failing to notice the streaks of color quickly closing in on it.

All at once, the dove and blackbird attacked the fox relentlessly, forcing the fox to drop the bluebird in shock, allowing its escape. The king was astounded at the bravery of the birds, whose speed and grace seemed like a thing of stories. While the dove was perhaps far too daring for safety, it was quick and clever; its movements seemed like that of rage, inflicting heavy damage to the fox's pelt. The blackbird was more careful, avoiding the snapping jaws of the furious fox, instead going for area's left unguarded.

Just as soon as the battle began, it ended, and the fox turned tail and ran. The victorious birds flew back to their previous perch, and the king soon heard the blackbird's angered chirps, as if chiding the dove. The king smiled at the pair, he had long begun to think of them as not mindless animals, but perhaps human like.

That day, the king began to dream of the ability to fight back against predators that preyed the helpless, like how the two birds had thrown themselves into danger to save the bluebird from being eaten from the much larger fox.

The feeling festered slowly, until the king finally decided to found one new branch of the military.

Instead of a branch to protect and reinforce the walls, or a branch to protect the nobles and royalty, the king created a branch of true fighters, who like him, shared the cramped feeling of being trapped within the walls while their old home was slowly being forgotten.

The branch had no name, no face, and was painfully small, but what members were there and the king's determination made it slowly grow into something formidability large.

Not a decade after its founding, the nameless branch demanded to become equal to its sister branches, the Military Police and Garrisons. While others scoffed, the king readily agreed.

The branch was soon named 'The Survey Corps'

Although ecstatic at the progress of his dear branch, the king was saddened still. Many brave soldiers died on every failed mission, and never had they achieved victory. When the king sincerely asked if the soldiers were still willing to jump into the jaws of the titans, in hopes of freedom, each soldier had reprimanded him for doubting their determination.

They reminded him that they choose their fates freely and willingly the minute they took up their swords. The soldier's fiery passion for freedom brought the king to tears, and the king deemed them more then worthy for an insignia that they would bare in battle proudly.

While many thought of insignias, often with crossing swords and an image of the 3D Maneuver Gear, the king took it upon himself to think of an insignia that would proudly display the Survey Corps' true determination and purpose.

They fought for freedom, for the ability to retake and explore what was once called humanity's home.

The king had been watching a rigorous training session that the Survey Corp soldiers regularly underwent, when he noticed with some akin to a jolt that the soldiers only seemed truly free, truly happy when they were in the air.

The 3D Maneuver Gear were their wings

And their wings allowed them the freedom to fly

To fly over and away from the walls

To the freedom they shed blood and tears for, the freedom they sacrificed their lives for

That's when the king decided that instead of swords, the insignia would brandish proud wings that would only spread with life when the wind ruffled the cloth it was sewn upon.

But the king wanted to infuse a deeper meaning further, but he had no idea how.

The king still had no idea, when his daughter, a rather selfish and greedy princess spotted the dove when she had followed the king on one of his many well-known strolls.

She thought the dove beautiful, and she wanted to keep the beauty to herself, locked up where only she would see it. Without her father's knowledge, the princess returned to her mother's side, demanding to have the dove captured and placed in a cage of beautiful ivory and inlaid gold.

The queen, who was very much like her daughter ordered the bird's capture, thinking her daughter deserving of such free beauty.

The king had instantly noticed the dove's absence on his next stroll. Frantic, the king searched high and low for the bird he had slowly begun to think of as a symbol of hope, only to find a depressed blackbird in its place.

Saddened greatly, the depressed king all but dragged himself back to his castle. When he had arrived, his daughter had dragged him to her room, proudly showing off her prize.

There was the dove, sitting hunched in defeat in what could be considered a gorgeous cage of gems, gold, silver and ivory that seemed to shine. The king thought the cage ugly, blinding, dulling the dove's once shining feathers.

The king demanded why his daughter would capture a creature meant to be free. Furious, his daughter refused to answer, instead threatening to call the queen.

Still angered, the king relented and left, glancing at the dove sadly before the door was slammed shut.

As the days passed, the king continued to fight for the dove's freedom, only to be shoved harshly aside by the selfish princess, who ignored every warning given.

Not months later, the princess began to complain how her dove's beauty began to dull, and how her bird never sang the songs she heard it sing before it's capture, not understanding and was furious because of it.

The selfish princess began to neglect feeding the bird, and barely paid it any attention. Instead of keeping the confided dove in sunlight's reach, she kept it in the shadows, tantalizingly close to the window.

Furious by his daughter's cruelty, the king warned his daughter that the dove would die if she neglected it any further. The princess again ignored him.

It had been evening, during one of their many fights over the dove within the princess's chambers when loud rapping accompanied by furious, almost desperate cries interrupted them from the window.

The king was astonished to see the blackbird trying in vain to break through the glass to the dove, who remained almost deathly still aside from a shallow rise and fall of its flanks. Angered by the interruption, the princess stormed to the window, throwing open the windows with enough force to splinter the frame. Unfortunately, the windows struck the blackbird, producing a solid, sickening sound of the fragile body colliding against the glass.

The king was horrified, and he rushed to the window, pushing his smirking daughter aside as he jumped out the window, kneeling down to the fallen bird.

The bird at first did not move, causing the king to briefly panic, but the bird finally pushed itself painfully back to its feet, already spreading its wings for flight. Speechless, the king rested a gentle hand on the bird's back, preventing it from flight, knowing it would not make it to the window sill. The birds beautiful ebony wings, once flawless, was bent in awkward angles, glistening with red.

The blackbird shook off the man's hand, instead spreading its wings as wide as it could, flapping them powerfully, and forcing itself to the cage holding the dove. The king watched in stunned sadness, shocked by the power and elegance that bird displayed as it persevered its body's limits. The princess, still furious of her father's attachment to the birds, intercepted the blackbird's course to the cage, ripping the barred box from its stand, preparing to throw it to the ground in a fit of rage.

The king was suddenly reminded of the encounter between the dove and blackbird against the fox, as something dangerous emanated from the blackbird, suddenly sending the bird rocketing towards the princess, clawing and shrieking at the girl.

Shocked, the princess dropped the cage, waving her hands frantically as she tried frantically to shake her attacker away. At the sound of the cage striking the floor, the blackbird instantly stopped its bloody, merciless attack, instead sharply diving towards the broken cage.

The king silently cried as he watched the blackbird nudge the unmoving dove, slowly breaking as realization dawned.

The dove was dead

The blackbird let loose a broken, heart wrenching cry as it mourned, only causing the silent tears the king shed to thicken

The princess was not as understanding. Still furious at the blackbird for the harm it upon her, she did not pause as she stormed up to the bird, letting loose a kick, sending the bird crashing into the wall.

The blackbird fell to the ground in an unmoving heap

The king gaped at the princess, suddenly questioning if she was really his flesh and blood. Shock gave way to disappointment, sadness, and a rare, tired level of seriousness that caused the foolish princess to freeze.

The king said nothing as he climbed back into the room, gently collecting the dead birds with enough care to handle a new born child.

Without looking back at the girl, who he no longer considered family, the king silently exited the room.

The princess realized her grave mistakes too late, and even then, never knew the true depth of her actions

Days after the death of the birds, the king announced the official insignia for the Survey Corps.

A white wing overlapping a black wing

When soldiers curiously asked the meaning of the colors, the king explained that the white wing of a dove symbolized hope and peace, while the black wing of a blackbird symbolized strength and protection.

The Survey Corps understood the depth of the insignia, and quickly vowed to carry the wings with pride as they entered battle with new found strength

Many years passed, and the solemn king grew old as he watched the Survey Corps branch grow like a father would watch his child, as he considered them his own flesh and blood more than his own daughter.

At his death bed, the king made a prediction…

'_When two beings come to carry one wing of the Survey Corps each, then, and only then will humanity have a chance of victory.'_

As the years passed, the king's last words began to be warped. The people began to forget. Instead of two beings, they thought two humans. Instead of strength and protection, only strength remained. Instead of hope and peace, only hope remained.

But the true soldiers of the Survey Corps understood, even if the meanings were slowly forgotten. The one to become Humanity's Hope had to stand for peace and hope. That Humanity's Strongest had to stand for protection and strength.

In the end of it all, the king's old nickname for his precious branch always stuck, and soon became a true name of the Survey Corps

_The Wings of Freedom_

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**A/N: I really don't know where this came from... Its obviously a branch off of the concept about the birds I used in 'Our Wings'. For some random reason, I felt the urge to create a story about the Survey Corps' founding, something that I believe hasn't been touched upon. Anyways, here's some deep shit to drown in, enjoy :) I think it makes sense, even though this thing had no prompting, no planing, literally just wrote itself. I had to stop a few times just to absorb how fucking TOUCHING this is TT_TT First time I wrote anything in 'legend' form though, its weird but not bad. I think I'll use this legend for a later date. Anyways bye~**


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